Family Emergency and Bereavement Airfares – Where To Find Them
Family medical emergency and bereavement fares have become harder to find in the past year as some airlines have eliminated them altogether.
The excuse is that competition among airlines has brought prices down to the point that they just can’t afford to reduce them any further – yeah right! We all know that last minute tickets with a flexible return date can often reach the $1,000 range.
Thankfully three of the major US airlines still make it a point to assist folks during family medical emergencies – Northwest Airlines (800-225-2525), United Airlines (800-241-6522) and American Airlines (800-433-7300) all offer bereavement and family medical emergency fares. Here are the steps you will need to take in order to obtain a bereavement or family medical emergency ticket:
1) You’ll need to phone the airline’s reservation department – information is nonexistent online for these types of tickets. They don’t even admit that they have such fares on their websites! Tell the agent you need an emergency ticket and what the circumstances are.
2) You must be an immediate family member of the ill or deceased person. Although (depending on the agent) airlines have been known to stretch the rules a bit if you have a compelling circumstance.
3) You’ll need the following information in front of you so the reservation agent can verify the circumstances of your request:
Your relative’s full name
Name and phone number of the hospital or medical facility
Name and phone number of the attending physician
Name and phone number of the funeral home
With luck the transaction can be taken care of in the course of one phone call, so be prepared with your desired dates and time of travel before placing the phone call. If the agent you get at first doesn’t seem able or willing to deal with your request, hang up and dial in again – or ask to speak with a supervisor.
Finally, you may want to check on Kayak.com or other search engine to see what a standard ticket would cost before making your phone call. You may find that there is a less expensive option available online with a low cost carrier. Also do a search on Hotwire and Priceline where last minute airfares are often substantially reduced. Here’s hoping you won’t need an emergency ticket, but it’s good to know which airlines are ready to assist you if you do.
Read our updated information on obtaining emergency airfares
Category: Airlines & Low Airfares, How To, Money Saving Travel, Travel Health & Safety
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Hi! Thank You guys at wickedgood…my Son is very ill and a young man at 23yrs. in FL-I’m disabled in VA. When I learned he was sick I immediately went online to see if Emergency flights still existed..so I typed in “Emergency Airfares” and up popped wickedgoodtraveltips.com! I couldn’t believe it…they didn’t try to ad campaign me to tears and were straight to the important stuff…their
information was right on the money, or my lack thereof, the info was honestly, well…PRICELESS..when your “Baby is sick..You have to be there…but I don’t have to crawl thru glass to do so…and I want to Thank You…from the bottom of this Mother’s heart…I will be back and hopefully have a Happy Ending for everyone! Right now, I need to get there from here..Thanks Again and Please, keep up your good work…it shows.
Much Love and Sincerety,
Angel
Angel, we’re glad our information was able to help in a stressful time. We hope your son has a rapid recovery and that you’ll be able to be with him in short order. Our thoughts are with you both, Susan and Linda
I’ve been contacted by a local senior citizen center. They have a man that has to travel from Orlando to Aruba due to a death in his family. He has a very low income and cant’ afford $1,000. All the airlines contacted said due to spring break they wouldn’t work with him. He needs to leave today 3/20 or 3/21 to attend the funeral. Can anyone help?
Cheryl, If the major airlines (American) can’t help with a last minute emergency ticket, I would turn to Priceline and Hotwire. I gave Hotwire a quick try and they were quoting flights between Orlando and Aruba departing tomorrow on Delta for approx $570. Hope that helps.
THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH FOR THIS INFORMATION!!!!!!! I CALLED NORTHWEST AND THEY WERE SOOO HELPFUL IN FINDING ME A FLIGHT FOR MY GREAT GRANDMOTHER’S FUNERAL… IT SAVED MY FAMILY AND MYSELF A GREAT CHUNK OF CASH!!
Susan, thanks for the info. You can also try a “compassion” fare at Continental:
http://www.continental.com/web/en-US/content/travel/specialneeds/compassion/default.aspx
The lady I spoke to was very nice – AND though the discount was not large (as I had already researched and found a mighty cheap flight) you can get essentially an open ticket there. As long as the flight I’m taking back costs the same as the (tentative) one I booked, I can come back anytime at no extra charge.
No help from any of the airlines. Needed to go from Fort Myers to Childrens Hospital of Philly and no one could help me get a rate that was decent.
Thank you so much for your site. It helped in one of my families most dire hours. My nana was sick and in the hospital when i found this site managed to make reservations and get a good airfare price for my mother to get to her. Unfortunately in the time it took to make the phone call she had passed. Anyways thank you for the no nonsense information and having all the phone numbers right there and accessible.
This was posted a couple of years ago. Do you have any updated info on bereavement fares? Thanks.
Hello Susan, We’ve just published a new article and updated all the bereavement fare information. You can find it at:http://www.wickedgoodtraveltips.com/2010/09/emergency-bereavement-compassion-airfares-who-offers-them-and-how-to-get-them/
My Father passed away May 13 and I had to get home ASAP for the service. I live in Osaka Japan and I booked my flight with a local agent for my daughter and myself with united airlines. I had heard of the flight benefits for a death in the family but when I called united airlines they said they didn’t understand what I was asking about and told me that to the best of their knowledge they couldn’t give me any refund on the tickets we had purchased. I know this is after the fact…but this was an emergency and who knows how and when we will need to get tickets to fly home at the high cost of travel today…this was not a vacation…please advise. Thanks in advance.
Edward
Hello Edward, Sorry to hear about the loss of your Dad. As far as I know, you must contact any of the airlines before you purchase tickets in order to request bereavement airfares. Once your ticket is purchased, I don’t believe any airline will touch it, unless it was a fully refundable fare.
im tryin to get to indianapolis from phoenix and no one has been able to help me…going cause of death in the family…hve to get there tomorrow for service and family….plz help me find the best course of action
I called to see if I could get an emergency ticket and all of them were around a thousand dollars I feel upset by this my sister is was in a car accident and is in a coma in wyoming and I am heart broken by not finding something to help my self or brothers. I wish other people better luck than myself I am going to hicth hike up there and hop eI can get there to be with her.
OMG!!! My heart goes out to all of you.
My father is dying “has hours maybe a few days”. If it wasnt income tax return time I’d never have been able to come up with money for one of these last min tickets.
What a shame!
Hello! I just would like to give you a huge thumbs up for your excellent info you have got right here on this post. I’ll be returning to your blog for more soon.
My sister has cancer and is in the hospital. I’m trying to find out how can I get help to get there before she passes. Any info will be helpful at this point. Thanks
During Christmas and Thanksgiving seasons it’s unfortunately almost impossible to find low-cost airfare. I would try low fare carriers like Spirit and Allegiant.
I called every single airline that flies out of Atlanta to Houston to try and get help on a medical emergency flight as my daughter is going into the hospital and not one single airline could give me anything more than 5% off and trying to get a round trip ticket 3 days before I need to leave is around $600-$1,000 (and 5% does not make it much of a difference). I’ve been unemployed for 2-1/2 yrs now, my unemployment has stopped, I lost my apartment, I’m in a homeless place, my credit cards are maxed out, I have over $30K medical bills due etc etc. I read several articles on the internet where it stated some airlines would help with medical emergencies – well, I called them and it is not true.